THE EFFECTS OF BACKGROUND AND COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT ON WOMEN'S CAREERS

Data on a national sample of women who first matriculated as college freshmen in 1966 were obtained from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) at the American Council on Education (ACE). Data collected at college entry in 1966 were merged with followup data collected in 1967, 1970, and 1971. The sample was restricted to young, American-born, white women who stayed at the same college for four years.;Second, I used multivariate regression analysis to identify the background and attitudes related to PhD/Professional career plans when women enter college and when they graduate. The background characteristics most strongly related to PhD/Professional career plans at college entry are achievement and intellectual self-esteem; marriage plans; and status interests in making a contribution and receiving recognition. Other high school experience, attitudes and interests are also significantly related to freshmen career plans. By the end of college, shifting to, or maintaining, PhD/Professional career plans is related to family backgrounds that are Jewish, Catholic, or non-South. Achievement and grades are also related to career plans at the end of college. The only college environment related to women's career plans are women's colleges, especially selective women's colleges for women with high achievement. Within colleges, participation in honors programs or research programs is related to PhD/Professional career plans at the end of college. Other outcomes related to career plans include increased self-esteem and more liberal politics; not being married and not having children.;Third, I used multivariate regression analysis and analysis of covariance to measure the effects of background and college environment on five career outcomes for the two groups of women who enter college with BA/MA career plans or PhD/Professional career plans. The five outcomes are PhD/Professional career plans in 1967, 1970, and 1971--one, four, and five years after college entrance, and whether women apply to or enter graduate school immediately after college graduation. The effects for the college environment are different for the two groups of women indicating that colleges have different effects on different subgroups of students.;Women who enter college with BA/MA career plans are least likely to raise their career plans during the first year in large relatively unselective public institutions and in large fields within colleges. After the first year, women are most likely to raise their career plans from BA/MA to PhD/Professional and apply to graduate school if they attend selective women's colleges. Women in both groups are more likely to raise their career plans from BA/MA to PhD/Professional or maintain their PhD/Professional career plans in colleges with relatively more faculty with PhD's. Women in both groups are more likely to apply to graduate school if they attend liberal undergraduate colleges.;First, I looked at patterns of change in attitudes and plans of six groups of college women. Women who enter college with BA/MA career plans or PhD/Professional career plans are further divided into three groups with low achievement; high achievement and low self-esteem; or high achievement and high self-esteem. Within these six groups, women do change their career plans and self-concepts during college. In general, these changes are in the direction of the women's measured achievement. Among both groups of women who enter college with BA/MA career plans or PhD/Professional career plans, women with high achievement are twice as likely as women with low achievement to express PhD/Professional career plans at the end of college. Women who enter college with high achievement and low self-esteem are most likely to raise their self-esteem during the college years.